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An unconscious man was pulled from Mirror Lake on the Ohio State University campus yesterday and
taken to Wexner Medical Center.

Emergency responders were called at 5:04 p.m. to the lake at 12th and Neil avenues by bystanders
who said the man appeared to be drowning.

The 25-year-old victim was in cardiac arrest when pulled from the water by OSU police officers
and student safety officers.

Rescuers performed CPR on the man and had restored his pulse by the time they arrived at the
medical center. OSU police last night did not release his name, update his condition, or explain
why he might have gone in the lake.

“While we are still working to collect and confirm information, the individual is not currently
enrolled at Ohio State,” read a 10 p.m. statement issued by the university’s Department of Public
safety.

The incident occurred as campus was packed with students newly returned for the fall semester,
which begins Wednesday.

Senior Katelyn Versen, 21, has jumped into Mirror Lake three years in a row, as part of the
tradition of leaping into the water in advance of the Ohio State-Michigan football game. She was
surprised to hear of the rescue.

“It’s crazy,” she said.

It is not the first serious incident to happen at the university’s iconic lake. In 1985, a woman
horsing around with a friend fell in and injured her head and spinal cord. Kristyn Elliott, a
sophomore at the time, was left a quadriplegic.